The Kingdom of Gods (Inheritance, Book Three)

Monday, June 5, 2017

The Kingdom of Gods (Inheritance, Book Three)
N. K. Jemisin, 2011

Premise: Sequel to The Broken Kingdoms. Time is passing, and the balance of power in the mortal world is affected by the changes in the gods. The power in the gods is changing too, as Sieh finds to his peril.

Sieh is one of the more memorable characters from the first two books - the child-trickster, first-born of the Three's many children. Naturally, he starts the first pages of his book telling the reader in no uncertain terms how his book will be different from those that went before.

This was a worthy sequel to the first two books, although I wasn't sure that was possible. I liked how much of this book was about consequences. The characters in books one and two made what seemed to be good choices at the time, but when the primary (corrupt) structure falls, is that actually a net positive?

For a parallel: if you take away Rome's power, you end the Pax Romana - for good and for ill.

Meanwhile, Sieh has bigger, personal issues. He, the ever-young god of childhood, is aging, and no one can figure out why. Nemisin's tremendous skill in balancing between a world that feels textured and real and a story that feels mythic and fated is on full display here.

I had some moments of existential horror in this book, as it draws the reader most fully into the scope of the gods' powers, and how easily life or light can be extinguished, even accidentally.

There's plenty of humor as well, of course. Don't miss the character list in the back of this book - Sieh has made some edits to the first part.

One final note: the omnibus edition I read also included the related novella, "The Awakened Kingdom." This was a fantastic cap to the series, although it did make the ending of the third book feel less momentous.5 Stars - An Awesome Book

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